The Media Gives John McCain Another Free Pass

The easiest job in America?  Covering John McCain's run for the White House.  The only requirement is to report what he says, remind America that he is a straight talker,  blatantly ignore anything that interferes with that narrative, and then get home to write that novel.  

Yesterday a rightwing radio hack with a history of making outrageous, hateful remarks about Barack Obama, warmed up the crowd for a McCain campaign event by repeatedly emphasizing "Hussein," calling him a hack, tossed in an insult to Madeline Albright's looks and hit the trifecta with a little homophobia.  All of this "delighted the 500 or so cheering Cincinnati Republicans," but John McCain was appalled.  So angry that long after his delighted and cheering fans had left, he decided to apologize for the remarks, because after all, he had no idea that this man would say anything like that.   Who would have thought that a man who has called Obama "Barack Mohammed Hussein Obama," who has said he was a one man "sleeper cell," and that it would be shocking to elect him in these "terrorist times," would ever say anything so hateful?  

And naturally, the press agrees. The Associated Press says that "McCain Disavows Comments About Obama," the New York Times tells us that "A Host Disparages Obama, and McCain Quickly Apologizes," while USA Today assures us that, "McCain rebukes radio host for Obama talk"   The Washington Post went along with the how-could-McCain-have-known-and-wasn't-that-a-great-apology route and threw in a little fair and balanced reporting:

Nonetheless, the exchange was an example of the already intense competition between McCain and Obama even before either has locked up his party's nomination.

The Post didn't explain how insults about Obama at a McCain event constituted "an exchange," but they did provide an example to show how this was an already intense competition...a quote from McCain's chief lobbyist campaign manager saying that Obama had "broken his word to the American public."  

Of course the media-love wouldn't be complete without Fox News giving us some deep thoughts from Saint John:

Though he vowed that attacks on Sen. Barack Obama’s background..."will never happen again," Sen. John McCain acknowledged late Tuesday that he is concerned that he may be unable to control all of his supporters—especially third party groups.

"We’re aware of many of the things that 527s have done...where unlimited amounts of money can pour into negative campaigns such as we saw against John Kerry and his combat record, as we saw against (former Senator) Max Cleland...they’re really very not accountable to anyone."

It seems this might have been a good time to mention that when there was a Sense of the Senate resolution saying that:

In 2002, a Senator from Georgia who is a Vietnam veteran, triple amputee, and the recipient of a Silver Star and Bronze Star, had his courage and patriotism attacked in an advertisement in which he was visually linked to Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein;

This attack was aptly described by a Senator and Vietnam veteran as ``reprehensible''...

...John McCain voted against it.  Nah.  That would make him seem like a hypocrite.  

Not one of our champions of journalistic integrity thought it was worth mentioning the long history of divisive, hateful language by this radio hack.  And why would they?  John McCain said he had no idea and he's a straight talker, so...end of story.